Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (3) 2012

Annotation:  Vegetation and Climate Changes in the Bolshoe Inyaptukskoe Lake Basin (North Baikal Plateau) in the Levantine Perspectives on the Middle to Upper Paleolithic “Transition” The Importance of Changes to microRNA in the Evolution of Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Denisova Upper Paleolithic Portable Art in Light of Ethnographic Studies Statistical Analysis of Spatial Distribution of Ceramics from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Sites i Ornaments Made from Animal Teeth in Human Burials at Tuzovskiye Bugry-1 and their Relevance to Ethni The Bronze Age Rock Art of Malye Arbaty A 2367-year Tree-Ring Chronology for the Altai–Sayan Region (Mongun-Taiga Mountain Massif) Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia Camisoles in the Traditional Male Costume of the Bukharan Jews (Part of the History of Clothes Cut f Western Siberian Folk Art: Northern Russian and Ural Traditions in Distaff Decoration Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Nanai Healing Ritual Sculptures Ethnic and Cultural Identity of the Belorussian Migrants in Western Siberia Prehistoric and Recent Populations of Chukotka: A Paleophenetic Analysis Armenia in the Eurasian Ethnic Context of Late Classical Antiquity: Craniometric Evidence Dental Wear Patterns and Subsistence Activities in Early Nomadic Pastoralist Communities of the Cent   

Cultural Contact and Cultural Transfer in Medieval Western Eurasia

D. Schorkowitz.

This essay deals with cultural contact, exchange, and transfer at the eastern margins of medieval Europe where interactions between different cultures of European and Asian origin have, over the centuries, shaped a unique crosscultural zone. As the western part of a Eurasian highway for peoples from Central Asia since ancient times, whose western migration became a crucial factor for early state formation in Europe, this intersection resulted mainly from eastward Slavic migration and the Varangian expansion to southern lands that brought the Norman Rus’ into contact and confl ict with the Byzantines and the emerging steppe empires of the Desht-i Qipchaq. Evidence is given to support the view that cultural exchange is a concept not precise enough to explain how cultural goods were adapted and integrated in this cross-cultural zone which I prefer to call Slavia Asiatica. A more complex approach to culture transfer is needed to explain acculturation processes in medieval times, comprising many cultural subsystems: language and writing, law and religion, knowledge, values and norms, practices and socio-political institutions.

Keywords: Cross-cultural contacts, cultural transfer, medieval western Eurasia, Pechenegs, Qipchaqs, Tatar-Mongols.